book data
27 ratings,
4.67
average rating, 14 reviews
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published
May 30th 2008
by Livingston Press (AL)
binding
Paperback, 144 pages
url
literary awards
2007 Tartt Fiction Award
isbn
160489007X
(isbn13: 9781604890075)
description
From the Publisher: A totally illuminating collection of stories centered around China's cultural revolution and its aftermath, which, as we learn, co...more
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| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| review by Alabama Writers's Forum | 1 | 7 | 07/21/2008 06:41PM | |
| book trailer | 1 | 3 | 07/14/2008 11:44AM | |
| PIF Magazine Interview on "Apologies" | 1 | 4 | 06/21/2008 07:43AM |
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 71)
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avg 4.67
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in September, 2008
I thought I'd reviewed this already. Oh well.
This is an impressive debut. It's not just the writing, which is careful and concise, but the package in its entirety, a (partial) explanation through stories of people and places which I recognize from history books, but knew little about before I read this book. I look forward to Xujun's memoir when it's published.
This is an impressive debut. It's not just the writing, which is careful and concise, but the package in its entirety, a (partial) explanation through stories of people and places which I recognize from history books, but knew little about before I read this book. I look forward to Xujun's memoir when it's published.
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
historical fiction, Asia, excellent short stories, China
This impressive collection of short stories gives the reader a glimpse into the world of China’s Cultural Revolution and its legacy. Reformed Red Guards, city kids “inserted” in impoverished farming villages, educated women looking for love with men who find them “too high to reach,” all grapple with the harsh realities of the times that are guaranteed to reveal any character to its depths. Xujun Eberlein’s witty, economical and often breathtaking prose makes for many memorable momen...more
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Read in May, 2008
This is a first book from a Chinese American author whose first book does not disappoint. Apologies covers tough territory: predominantly rural China during and after the cultural revolution. There is a bit of similarity between the protagonists of the individual stories but Eberlein overcomes that through her ability to get to the unique core of each character. They are primarily educated women "relocated" to rural areas, but despite those commonalities they all have a unique (and of...more
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Read in November, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone
A powerful collection of stories taking place during and after the Cultural Revolution in China. Intimate, melancholy, comic, sensuous, the stories cover a broad range: the mysterious, short-lived career of a promising poet ("Snow Line"); the fate of an urban teenager sent to work in a peasant collective in the countryside ("Disciple of the Masses"); the accidental meeting, years later in the U.S., of two members of rival revolutionary factions ("Second Encounter")....more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
general readership.
Loved this collection. Deceptively simply-written tales that carried me into the eras of and after China's disastrous Cultural Revolution. There's an authenticity to each setting, character and situation that attests to Xujun's experiences, but each story is truly a story, compelling and complicated at heart.
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When I was 21, in 1968, I thought I had to reject adults in order to make the world a better place. I didn't know that on the other side of the world, a billion Chinese were in a frenzy to do the same thing. Mao's Cultural Revolution was in full swing, and educated families became the enemies of the state. This book of short stories brings those times to life, through the eyes of a young intellectual girl in a world that had turned against education.
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Read in December, 2008
Great set of intelligently written fiction stories about life during and after the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Some awkwardness in sentence structure, but sad and thought-provoking, the stories show how the average person was greatly affected by this huge feat of brainwashing. No holds barred, this is how it was and what it was like after. Wow.
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Read in October, 2008
Xujun's characters are living their lives as best they can in turbulent times. Her Chinese-inflected English often made me stop and savor words or expressions
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A very human look at the impact of the cultural revolution! Eberlein has a gift for storytelling and a skill with prose.
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Read in July, 2008
To read my review: Click Link Below
http://www.bookpleasures.com/Lore2/idx/0...
http://www.bookpleasures.com/Lore2/idx/0...
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Sue by:
Xujun!recommends it for: everyone
Review forthcoming.
For now I will say that this work is delicately written, and heartbreakingly beautiful.
For now I will say that this work is delicately written, and heartbreakingly beautiful.
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Xujun's sublime short stories explode the western-centric worldview. Here is 'other'.
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Read in January, 2009
Wonderful storytelling. At the end of each story I felt like I'd read a novel. (You know that feeling when you finish a good novel, close the covers, breathe out and blink, like you're returning to the real world again?) I think that's due to the depth of the characters, and the breadth invoked even in the 'simplest' and shortest pieces. I also learned a lot about the Cultural Revolution - good to expand knowledge while richly entertained, no?
The story 'Second Encounter' was especia...more
The story 'Second Encounter' was especia...more
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Excellent, powerful collections of story that educate and entertain. An interesting, fast read.
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